Contingent by Livia Jamerlan Page A

everywhere. I could smell him— us —but my house was cold and lonely. I pressed my fingers into the sockets of my eyes, pushing on the migraine that was building behind them. Dressed in yoga pants and a T-shirt, I walked towards the kitchen. I needed a pint of Talenti and hours of terrible reality TV to make me feel better.
    Gus sat on a stool at the kitchen island with his Beats headphones plugged into his laptop. He slid them off his ears when he noticed me walk in.
    “Hey, baby girl.”
    I swallowed hard. “Hey . . .” I yanked back the freezer door and took out a pint of gelato. “Did you see him leave?” I asked when I had a spoon in hand. My voice carried a twinge of disappointment.
    “Yeah,” his eyes avoided mine. “When I first came home, I thought maybe you were knocking boots with Landon, but I noticed Peyton’s car outside the house. I’d hoped you two were working things out, but judging by his hasty departure and the look on your face, I’m guessing it didn’t go so well.”
    I swallowed back the large amount of ice cream in my mouth and shook my head. “Nope, It didn’t go so well. I’m a fucked up person,” I muttered. A heaviness centered around my chest.
    “No, you’re not.”
    “I am, Gus. I was on a date with a great guy and the second my ex showed up I spread my legs for him.” I wrapped my hands around my head, hiding in my cocoon of anguish.
    Gus closed his laptop and hopped off the barstool. “Okay, maybe that’s a little fucked up. Especially since you are probably going to be all over social media tomorrow.”
    I shifted my attention from my ice cream. “What do you mean?”
    “Landon has a pretty big following on all social media platforms. He was tagged all over Twitter for being at the game tonight. Pretty soon pictures of you two will be up there as well.” He took a bottle of water from the fridge. It was past two in the morning, but Gus was a night owl.
    “I don’t want to know. Whatever you see on there, whatever the media spins or says, I don’t want to know. I just want to curl under the covers for the next few days.”
    “But was it at least a good date?” His features were hopeful.
    “It was a perfect date. Too bad I can’t see him ever again.” I took my ice cream to the couch and pulled the comforting throw across my body. I spent the night on the couch since my room reeked of Haas.

Braelynn
    My date night was all over social media.
    I lay on the couch, contemplating if I wanted to read what they were saying about me. It was one date. I didn’t kiss him; it could have been two friends watching the game. My fingers tapped the link, and a celebrity news website popped up.
    Peyton Haas’s Former Girlfriend Has Moved on to the Major League.
    I slid my finger over the phone looking for a picture of us. Halfway down the article there we were, my head resting on Landon’s chest after the ball had been tossed in our direction.
    Jenkins has no problem cozying up next to his date.
    My fingers itched to scroll back up. I wanted to read every article that had been released, but I knew better. Logging out of the application completely, I decided it would be best to ignore what anyone was saying. It wasn’t as if they knew the truth. No one knew that Peyton had showed up at my house later on.
    Tossing the throw blanket off my body, I stretched my arms above my head. The sore ache in my muscles reminded me of what had happened here last night. “Damn you, Haas.”
    After I was showered and dressed for work, I grabbed my cup of coffee and stepped out of the house. Thomas’s car waited for me.
    “Ms. Wolf,” Thomas greeted me as he opened the back door.
    “Hi, Thomas.” I smiled at him, stopping short of the car’s back door. “I appreciate it, but going forward I will no longer be needing your services.”
    “But Mr. Haas, insisted—”
    “Mr. Haas and I are no longer together. And given that fact, I do not feel comfortable having you as my